


tabula rasa

by makiyakinabe



Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 14:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7644730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makiyakinabe/pseuds/makiyakinabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How does one go about assuming a new identity, responding to an altogether different name and living as someone else entirely?</p><p><i>First,</i> Yuuki says, <i>start small</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tabula rasa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gramarye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gramarye/gifts).



After passing Yuuki's private exams with flying colors, each of the candidates were handed a single piece of paper detailing their upcoming cover. They were nothing overcomplicated: all that was printed on each paper were a surname, an age, a place of origin and a personality trait.

Some of the candidates raised an eyebrow over how simplistic the covers were. Some curled their lip in derision. A select few went even further, scoffing and flinging their papers back onto the desk separating them from Yuuki. "This can't be all there is," they insisted. "You must be joking, I've jumped through all your hoops and what do you assign me? A cover that's practically child's play. Even a _two-bit actor_ has more information about the roles they'll take up."

The latter set of men were the ones Yuuki silently made notes of. Disrespect of authority, when paired with hubris, made for a dangerously volatile combination. A spy might sneer at ridiculous new orders from higher up and resolve to act according to his own judgment, but he remained, to all intents and purposes, an instrument in the service of the state. Putting self-interest before the interests of Japan as a whole was a slippery slope. However talented a spy may be, he was only as useful as he was loyal: without his allegiance, who was to say he wouldn't break ties and sell his services to the highest bidder?

Of course, Yuuki kept all such thoughts to himself. Steepling his fingers in front of his face, he asked, rhetorically, "Would you have an infant participate in a footrace before they could stand up on their own?" and watched their faces change.

As the French saying went, _Rome ne s’est pas faite en un jour_. No matter how exceptional the prospective spies prided themselves on being, even they would be hard-pressed to stick to a cover they had but a week to prepare for (and with no prior training whatsoever to boot, at that). They were only human—as much as they'd hate to admit it—and, like all humans, they made mistakes.

A modest sushi chef seen reading an untranslated copy of T. S. Eliot's _The Waste Land_. A soft-spoken mathematics professor, commonly described by his colleagues as 'all brain and no brawn', rumored to have singlehandedly defeated a Lieutenant in a bar brawl. Elementary mistakes like those could make or break a mission.

The best way to account for this express contingency, Yuuki believed, was by giving the candidates as much room for creativity as possible.

"Don't say something you can't back up," he said, at the sight of skepticism lingering on their faces. "If—let's say—you've never attended a rakugo performance in your life, it won't do to make yourself out to be a fellow rakugo enthusiast simply because your target is one. Rather, pick and choose the details that comprise your cover based on how well you know them."

Some of the candidates nodded and returned their papers without a word. Some leaned forward in their seats, brow furrowed, and asked for a few pointers (which Yuuki gladly gave, although he was careful to school his expressions so as not to let his approval show: making the best use of all possible resources was one of the markings of a great spy). A few crossed their arms, unconvinced. "It's a piece of cake," they muttered. "I can do this in my sleep. Can't you give me something more _challenging?_ "

"Oh? Is that so." Yuuki smirked. "How about we make a deal? Do whatever preparations you need to assume the cover I've assigned you for now. If, as you so confidently claimed, you can 'do it in your sleep', report to me in a month's time and I'll put together something much more complex."

Needless to say, the men jumped at the offer.

Privately, Yuuki doubted that any of them would be able to back up their claims with action, and not just because none of them had any experience related to the dramatic arts. The thing about lies and deception was that they tended to add up and snowball into something much too big for someone to handle alone (hence his decision to start small with regards to the cover identities). But this was as good an opportunity as any for a lesson in humility and he'd be a fool not to take advantage of it.

Yuuki waited until the door had fully closed behind the candidates before he leaned back in his chair, letting a wolf-like grin overtake his face.

His handpicked recruits were a rare breed, alright.

D Agency's entry exams were not such that anyone could pass with flying colors, after all. If someone grabbed off the streets was asked to point out Saipan on a map from which the island had been erased from the Pacific Ocean, chances were not only would they be ignorant of the fact, but they'd also jab at one of the smaller islands of Japan proper at random. Even if that person just so happened to be a college graduate or professor and was geographically literate enough to answer the question correctly, give them a couple of meaningless lines to recite back to front on the spot and chances were they'd balk, refusing to do something so ostensibly silly, if not getting tongue-tied and losing their place halfway through. And even if that person just so happened to indulge in talking backwards as a pastime, chances were they'd be unable to recall how many steps they'd taken from the threshold of the building to the room in which the exams were conducted.

The candidates would never admit as such, but, up to the instant they laid eyes on Yuuki, there was a niggling part of them that doubted there was anyone as exceptional as them out there. Neither, if Yuuki was to be honest with himself, did he. And yet, there were.

Not one, not two, but twelve others.

He could see the looks on his recruits' faces already, when they met each other for the first time a week from the day. Although none of them had ever met before, they'd be able to pick one another out from the crowd at a single glance. It wouldn't due to fate, or a meeting ordained by the gods, or whatever tautology the average joes embraced to make themselves feel important. They'd simply see themselves in one another, recognizing the self-assured way in which they held themselves, the laidback gait, the eyes that casually took in every detail and stored them indiscriminately—

—and the identical smiles that'd spread across their faces like wildfire when they first laid eyes upon one another.

Yuuki could hardly wait.


End file.
